Red-hot Coughlin wins again in Brainerd (NHRA/JEGS)

Red-hot Coughlin wins again in Brainerd

BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 15) --  Jeg Coughlin Jr. let everyone on his JEGS.com 
race team know he wanted to go  into the Countdown to the Championship with 
as much momentum as possible. After  adding another win to his 2010 total 
Sunday at the 29th annual Lucas Oil NHRA  Nationals at Brainerd International 
Raceway, Coughlin has gotten his wish and  will now enter the playoffs as 
the hottest driver in his class.

"We came  here off a great Western Swing where we won in Sonoma and 
followed that up with  a strong runner-up finish in Denver," Coughlin said. "We 
were sky high and  certainly thought we'd have more success with a brand new 
engine from the shop.  But after struggling a bit in qualifying and then 
analyzing all the data, we  decided to go back to the motor we had in Sonoma and, 
boom, that thing took us  right to the top.

"We're now the closest we've been to the points leader  all year. That's 
the way the Countdown goes. It's worked in our favor before and  last year it 
worked against us. This year we probably wouldn't have had a chance  to run 
for our sixth overall world title but now we will so that's really  
exciting."

The No. 12 qualifier, Coughlin upset Ron Krisher in the first  round with 
the second quickest speed of the session and never looked back,  posting big 
wins over Minnesotan teammates Jason Line and Greg Anderson, and  Shane Gray 
in the final for his 52 national event win at the professional level.  He's 
now tied with Top Fuel legend Joe Amato in eighth place on the all-time  w
ins list.

"I feel a bit fortunate because we barely made it up there for  the 
finals," Coughlin said. "I heard something odd with the motor in the semis  and 
that engine is probably our best Jose so we didn't want to damage it. The  guys 
thrashed and put our No. 3 motor in there for the final and we used up  
every bit of that 75 minutes between rounds to get up there and race  Shane."

Slightly rattled by the rush, Coughlin caught a bit of a break  when Gray 
jumped the green light by -.001 seconds. It may not have mattered any  way as 
he went on to post a 6.614 at 208.04 mph to Gray's 6.654 at 207.21 mph,  
but it could have been close.

"I do want to say that the Grays have done  a phenomenal job this year and 
if Shane had been a couple thousands on the green  side of the tree he would 
have put away my yellow and black car because I was  dead late," Coughlin 
said of his .059-second reaction time. "Those are good guys  over there and 
they'll win plenty of races, I'm sure."

For now the focus  turns to the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals 
presented by Lucas Oil, which  take place Sept. 2-6 in Indianapolis. 

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